I wanted to take sometime and talk to the mom's out there with teens at home. This is such an amazing age to homeschool. It is not as stressful as teaching them to read and the interaction and conversations you have over geometry will bless your socks off, IF they stay in the room. Teens tend to isolate themselves at times. They like having some control and responsibility over their schoolwork. If given the opportunity to have delight-directed choices they will explore subjects they never dreamt possible.

This is also the age when they say, "Can I go to Public School? This is always followed up with "I want to hang out with my friends." Because that is what their friends tell them the do all day. "We hang out, or you won't believe what happened at lunch?" What they do not discuss is the incredible amount of homework they have and the lack of time to hang out because of it. My husband was always giving the kids a choice about their schooling. This always sent me to my knees. God always turned their hearts toward home. (sighing a deep sigh of relief here) When they began this train of thought, I began the questions. Why do you want to go? What is it you think you will find there? Is there a subject you want? Oh I see, Jessica just got her High School ring? if you ask enough questions you always get to the heart of the matter.

We did a few things for our teens that I think really mattered to them (Heatherlee you can weigh in her if you would like)  We loved the name of our school, Our Shepherd's Garden Academy but they needed a distinction for High School so we changed the name to Genesis High School. They came up with a motto "Because in the beginning there was school at home" They chose their school colors Heather chose Green and Silver , Matt chose red, white and Blue. And they had  an Eagle for their mascot. We had High School rings made up for them. They had High school Jackets so that when they walked through the mall they had a since of ownership. This was also a GREAT deterrent to unwanted advances form Guys that would come up and say, "Hey haven't I seen you around, I think we have science together?" "Really I know we go to the same school." Now a prom mattered to Heatherlee but not to Matt and we didn’t know how we were going to pull that off. But God did, and when my husband had an Awards ceremony for Him, his prom dad was his daughter. God provided all her needs. They both had graduation ceremonies a Church which were so moving and filled with prayer and scripture. And they both had graduation presents. Heather's was a trip to Israel with TMI for 2 months. Matthew's was flying lessons. 

As for the socialization aspects of High school, my teens went to Youth Groups plural. Heatherlee said one had the best games, one had the best teaching, another the best library. (I am sure one also had the cutest guys) We had a great Homeschool support group in Florida and all the teens went to different churches (usually because their dads were in ministry) so they best way for them to hang out together was at each others Youth Groups.

I hope I have given you some things to think about in this post. Rites of passage like Bar/Bat Mitzvah's , graduation and School jackets really do give ownership to your teens.

Have an awesome school year with Jesus.